Digital Thread for Manufacturing | Anark Digital Engineering Solutions

What is a Digital Thread?

A digital thread is the authoritative, connected flow of digital data that spans a product’s lifecycle—from concept and design to production, service, and beyond. It provides a holistic, traceable, and real-time view of a product’s evolution, enabling faster, smarter decisions and reducing costly rework.

The digital thread is the mechanism that connects digital engineering and model-based enterprise initiatives to deliver enterprise-wide innovation. It goes beyond isolated systems to reach every stakeholder—internal or external—who contributes to or consumes product data. The right data to the right person at the right time.

The PLM Collaboration Gap

Manufacturing, quality, supply chain, and others operate outside PLM, creating a collaboration gap that breaks the digital thread. Outdated files, disconnected emails, and hidden tribal knowledge slow production and increase costs.

The Digital Thread Myth

The digital thread promised seamless connections—but PLM alone leaves engineers as the "human-powered digital thread" manually sharing data across internal and external collaborators, introducing errors and IP security risks.

External Collaboration Misalignment

Suppliers, customers, regulatory agencies and receive data without context from PLM resulting in delays, quality issues and miscommunication. Without contextual data exchange and collaboration, even the best designs can fail to launch.

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Integration and Scalability Limits

Traditional PLM lacks the extensibility to integrate with an enterprise-wide digital thread, especially beyond the firewall. Without role-based collaboration, feedback loops, and data experiences, scaling to non-engineering users is limited.

Automate Technical Data Exchange

Automate technical data exchange without duplicating or exporting native CAD data

Optimize Digital Thread Collaboration

Optimize digital collaboration across departments, geographies, and supplier networks

Closed Loop Traceability

Close the loop for full traceability across the digital thread

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Go Faster with Agile Decision-making

Streamline agile decision-making and continuous improvement

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Learn how our Anark works in concert with your existing systems, enabling:

Role-based web portals and TDPs for internal and external collaborators
Automated or manual publishing workflows integrated with PLM
Controlled access to live product definition data across the digital enterprise
Real-time collaboration and data reuse across design, manufacturing, quality, and service

DoD Instruction 5000.97 on Digital Engineering

DoD Instruction 5000.97 is reshaping how manufacturers must manage and deliver engineering data—requiring interoperable, traceable, and secure digital threads across the product lifecycle. If you support engineering systems (PLM, CAD, ERP, MES) or drive supplier data integration, you need to understand what this means for your IT architecture, data strategy, and compliance efforts. Anark created a Guide to DoD Instruction 5000.97 on Digital Engineering, available in a free on-demand webinar.

DOD Instruction 5000-97 Digital Thread

Equip your team to lead in this new era of digital acquisition and engineering and learn:

What DoD 5000.97 mandates—and why it matters to your engineering IT stack

How to enable model-based collaboration without disrupting existing systems

Proven patterns for creating secure digital threads across internal and external teams

Real-world examples of Anark-powered digital engineering in leading manufacturers

Anark Products Power the Digital Thread

Whether you’re modernizing your supply chain, deploying digital engineering initiatives, or moving toward a model-based enterprise, Anark provides the foundation for digital transformation. By connecting engineering data to everyone who needs it—securely, contextually, and in real-time—you’ll unlock productivity, reduce costs, and improve product quality with the Anark Product Innovation Platform. Meet the products that make a digital thread a reality.